US Marines to return to Afghanistan province

WASHINGTON: Some 300 US Marines will head to Helmand province in Afghanistan this spring to help a NATO-led mission to train Afghan forces, the Marines said Friday. The move puts Marines back in Helmand, who left in 2014 as NATO withdrew its forces and let Afghan troops lead the fight against the Taliban.

They were among the first US forces sent to Afghanistan after the 2001 terror attacks in the United States. Several thousand were deployed in Helmand, an opium-producing region, where they engaged in bitter combat with the Taliban insurgency. The administration of outgoing President Barack Obama had hoped to withdraw most US military forces from Afghanistan by now, leaving behind just a small force. But the United States still has some 8,400 military personnel in the country, and is now returning the Marines to Helmand.

At the request of US Central Command (CENTCOM) and the US forces in Afghanistan, “approximately 300 Marines will deploy to Helmand Province Afghanistan in Spring 2017 in support of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission,” a statement from the Marine Corps said.

The Marines “will train and advise key leaders within the Afghan National Army 215th Corps and the 505th Zone National Police,” it added. “Advising and assisting Afghan defense and security forces will assist in preserving gains made together with the Afghans.”

The Afghan army and police are struggling in their struggle against a resurgent Taleban. In early December General John Nicholson, the chief US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said that Kabul directly controls about 64 percent of the country’s population of 30 million, down slightly from 68 percent earlier in 2016. He said that the Taleban have been especially active in Helmand province and are working opium with traffickers.

“There’s a nexus here between the insurgency and criminal networks that’s occurring in Helmand that makes Helmand such a difficult fight,” he added. Afghanistan is by far the world’s largest opium producer. The UN estimates 2016 production at 4,800 to 6,000 tons, up sharply from 3,300 tons in 2015, while cultivated areas have increased by 10 percent in one year.

Hazara miners killed

Unidentified gunmen killed eight members of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority who were working as miners in the northern province of Baghlan, a local government official said.

Faiz Mohammad Amiri, governor of Taleh va Barfak district, said the eight dead and three other wounded, who all came from Daykundi province in central Afghanistan, had been pulled out of a vehicle and shot on Friday. He blamed the Taleban, which controls the district where the incident occurred but the insurgent movement denied any involvement.

“The people working in this mine had our permission and we had good relations,” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “They hadn’t created any problems.” He blamed “arbakis” or members of informal local militias, in the area for the killings. Hazaras are a Persianspeaking, largely Shia minority, who have faced a long history of discrimination and violence in mainly Sunni Afghanistan.

Last year, scores of Hazara were killed in a series of attacks in Kabul, some claimed by Islamic State in an apparent attempt to stir sectarian tensions. The incident underlines the dire security situation in the country, where government forces now control only two-thirds of national territory and violence is a daily occurrence. — AFP